Books by Blake Gopnik

Warhol

by Blake Gopnik, Klaus Honnef

The definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his—or any—age

To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name and dominated the public’s image of him, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that.
In Warhol, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. “The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,” from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the “performance” of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom—and his attempted assassination.
The extent and range of Warhol’s success, and his deliberate attempts to thwart his biographers, means that it hasn’t been easy to put together an accurate or complete image of him. But in this biography, unprecedented in its scope and detail as well as in its access to Warhol’s archives, Gopnik brings to life a figure who continues to fascinate because of his contradictions—he was known as sweet and caring to his loved ones but also a coldhearted manipulator; a deep-thinking avant-gardist but also a true lover of schlock and kitsch; a faithful churchgoer but also an eager sinner, skeptic, and cynic.
Wide-ranging and immersive, Warhol gives us the most robust and intricate picture to date of a man and an artist who consistently defied easy categorization and whose life and work continue to profoundly affect our culture and society today.

Warhol

by Blake Gopnik, Klaus Honnef

The definitive biography of a fascinating and paradoxical figure, one of the most influential artists of his—or any—age

To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name and dominated the public’s image of him, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that.
In Warhol, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. “The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,” from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the “performance” of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom—and his attempted assassination.
The extent and range of Warhol’s success, and his deliberate attempts to thwart his biographers, means that it hasn’t been easy to put together an accurate or complete image of him. But in this biography, unprecedented in its scope and detail as well as in its access to Warhol’s archives, Gopnik brings to life a figure who continues to fascinate because of his contradictions—he was known as sweet and caring to his loved ones but also a coldhearted manipulator; a deep-thinking avant-gardist but also a true lover of schlock and kitsch; a faithful churchgoer but also an eager sinner, skeptic, and cynic.
Wide-ranging and immersive, Warhol gives us the most robust and intricate picture to date of a man and an artist who consistently defied easy categorization and whose life and work continue to profoundly affect our culture and society today.

Warhol

by Blake Gopnik, Klaus Honnef

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) is hailed as the most important proponent of the Pop art movement. A critical and creative observer of American society, he explored key themes of consumerism, materialism, media, and celebrity.

Drawing on contemporary advertisements, comic strips, consumer products, and Hollywood’s most famous faces, Warhol proposed a radical reevaluation of what constituted artistic subject matter. Through Warhol, a Campbell’s soup can and Coca Cola bottle became as worthy of artistic status as any traditional still life. At the same time, Warhol reconfigured the role of the artist. Famously stating “I want to be a machine,” he systematically reduced the presence of his own authorship, working with mass-production methods and images, as well as dozens of assistants in a studio he dubbed the Factory.

This book introduces Warhol’s multifaceted, prolific oeuvre, which revolutionized distinctions between “high” and “low” art and integrated ideas of living, producing, and consuming that remain central questions of modern experience.

The Maverick's Museum: Albert Barnes and His American Dream

by Blake Gopnik

A fascinating biography of the philanthropist Albert Barnes, whose pioneering collection of modern art was meant to transform America’s soul
From prominent critic and biographer Blake Gopnik comes a compelling new portrait of America’s first great collector of modern art, Albert Coombs Barnes. Raised in a Philadelphia slum shortly after the Civil War, Barnes rose to earn a medical degree and then made a fortune from a pioneering antiseptic treatment for newborns. Never losing sight of the working-class neighbors of his youth, Barnes became a ruthless advocate for their rights and needs. His vast art collection—180 Renoirs, 67 Cézannes, 59 Matisses, 45 Picassos—was dedicated to enriching their cultural lives. A miner was more likely to get access than a mine owner.
Gopnik’s meticulous research reveals Barnes as a fierce advocate for the egalitarian ideals of his era’s progressive movement. But while his friends in the movement worked to reshape American society, Barnes wanted to transform the nation’s aesthetic life, taking art out of the hands of the elite and making it available to the average American.
The Maverick’s Museum offers a vivid picture of one of America’s great eccentrics. The sheer ferocity of Barnes’s democratic ambitions left him with more enemies than allies among people of all classes, but for a circle of intimates, he was a model of intelligence, generosity, and loyalty. In this compelling portrait, Gopnik reveals a life shaped by contradictions, one that left a lasting impact.

The Maverick's Museum Albert Barnes and His American Dream

by Blake Gopnik

A fascinating biography of the philanthropist Albert Barnes, whose pioneering collection of modern art was meant to transform America's soul

From prominent critic and biographer Blake Gopnik comes a compelling new portrait of America's first great collector of modern art, Albert Coombs Barnes. Raised in a Philadelphia slum shortly after the Civil War, Barnes rose to earn a medical degree and then made a fortune from a pioneering antiseptic treatment for newborns. Never losing sight of the working-class neighbors of his youth, Barnes became a ruthless advocate for their rights and needs. His vast art collection--181 Renoirs, 69 Cézannes, 59 Matisses, 46 Picassos--was dedicated to enriching their cultural lives. A miner was more likely to get access than a mine owner.

Gopnik's meticulous research reveals Barnes as a fierce advocate for the egalitarian ideals of his era's progressive movement. But while his friends in the movement worked to reshape American society, Barnes wanted to transform the nation's aesthetic life, taking art out of the hands of the elite and making it available to the average American.

The Maverick's Museum offers a vivid picture of one of America's great eccentrics. The sheer ferocity of Barnes's democratic ambitions left him with more enemies than allies among people of all classes, but for a circle of intimates, he was a model of intelligence, generosity, and loyalty. In this compelling portrait, Gopnik reveals a life shaped by contradictions, one that left a lasting impact.

Brutalist Interiors

by Blake Gopnik, Naomi Pollock, Felix Torkar, Ewan Harrison

Brutalist Interiors reveals the hitherto overlooked interiors of Brutalist and concrete buildings around the world. The book combines photography of select interiors with essays by leading architectural writers and academics on subjects ranging from childhood inside Montreal's Habitat 67 to the interiors of Denys Lasdun in Ghana, Tadao Ando in Japan, and the use of Brutalist techniques in contemporary design.

Photographs by leading architectural photographers such as Roberto Conte, Stefano Perego, Simon Phipps and Iwan Baan and essays written by Blake Gopnik, Ewan Harrison, Deane Madsen, Gili Merin, Naomi Pollock, Felix Torkar, Ljubica Slavkovic and Rixt Woudstra take readers inside the interiors of some of the world's most remarkable Brutalist and contemporary concrete buildings.

Blue Crow Media is known for its celebration of Brutalism through its popular urban architecture maps and cult annual Brutalist Calendar.

Made by MSCHF

by Blake Gopnik, Maurizio Cattelan, Lukas Bentel, Kevin Wiesner, Karen Wong, Amy Adler, Lauren Boyle, Natasha Jen, Sean Monahan, Lydia Pang

A comprehensive, irreverent guide to the inner workings of provocative art collective MSCHF

Made by MSCHF is a survey of the work of Brooklyn-based art collective MSCHF, known for their eclectic projects that critique the very areas of popular culture they inhabit. Ranging from a line of designer handbags only visible under a microscope to an anime dating game that helps players generate a functional tax return, MSCHF's works are incisive, often viral, and always instilled with their unique brand of subversive humor.

Featuring never-before-seen imagery, this book presents case studies that explore twelve of MSCHF's projects in depth, providing readers with a blueprint of how their works are developed from ideation to release. Written by two of the collective's cofounders, the book features an additional six thematic essays and an archive of every MSCHF artwork to date, together revealing the experimental group's range and evolution.

Projects include: Big Red Boot, a pair of cartoonishly large rubber boots; Jesus Shoes, their designer-branded sneakers filled with holy water; ATM Leaderboard, an ATM installed at Art Basel Miami Beach that ranked users by bank balance; and Severed Spots, in which they cut out spots from Damien Hirst prints and sold them as individual art works.